UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH HERALDS SOLAR ENERGY AS A FUTURE SOURCE OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

• Pioneering technology can distribute the internet to every corner of the world at little more than the cost of a solar-panel and an LED light • Four billion people across the world have no access to the internet • University of Edinburgh Li-Fi R&D Centre develops a technology to combine light communication and energy harvesting from solar panels • Recent TED Talk heralds new technology breakthrough

Edinburgh, Scotland - Tuesday 10th November 2015. A new form of wireless data communication using solar energy to create the power for Li-Fi technology will bring significant and profound commercial and social benefits to millions of people across the world. This will have impact particularly for populations in rural communities and the developing world that do not have existing infrastructures for electric power, the internet and Wi-Fi access.


Light is used to transmit data, whilst the solar panel receives high speed data, which, effectively, gives the solar panel the means to provide energy for Li-Fi technology AND act as a broadband receiver for Li-Fi!

The technology was developed by a research team at the University of Edinburghs Li-Fi R&D Centre, led by Professor Harald Haas. At this years TED Global 2015 event in London, Professor Haas demonstrated how Li-Fi can be used with solar cells to receive data, thus bringing into sharp focus how the likes of solar panels on houses or other objects such as smart watches, and in fact all future Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices can absorb power and receive data at the same time. With the help of this technology, smart watches could be powered and connected to the internet through light.

The prototype used in the demonstration was built in a collaborative partnership between the University of Edinburghs ground-breaking Li-Fi R&D Centre and pureLiFi Ltd, a University of Edinburgh spin-out company, widely acknowledged as the global pioneers of using the visible light spectrum instead of radio frequencies to enable wireless data communication.

Edinburgh Research & Innovation (ERI), the commercialisation arm of the University of Edinburgh, is now looking for industrial partners to work with the Universitys Li-Fi R&D Centre to develop the technology for commercial use.

Tom Higgison, ERIs IP Projects Manager comments;

"This University of Edinburgh technology combines light based data communications, or ‘Li-Fi, with energy harvesting, to create an exciting set of applications not previously anticipated including in rural broadband access, smart city networks, and the internet of things. The wider opportunity is to transform global communications by speeding up the process of bringing internet and other data communication functionality to remote and poorer regions in a way not previously thought achievable due to lack of infrastructure and investment."

During his talk, Professor Haas stressed that over four billion people worldwide do not have access to the internet and with little energy infrastructure in developing countries to support traditional broadband and Wi-Fi, solar energy can bring transformational change to this situation.

Professor Haas said;

"The potential expansion to the internet is massive and my aspiration is that this broadband solar panel receiver technology for Li-Fi will help solve the challenges of the digital divide throughout the world, and catalyse the uptake of the IoT as connectivity and battery-free power supplies are essential if we want to connect a trillion objects to the internet. "

The research carried out by the University of Edinburgh Li-Fi R&D Centre focuses on the integration of power gathering and data-reception at solar panels and turning them into communication devices. In effect, solar cells within the panel become communications nodes that receive high bandwidth data whilst also providing electrical power for the nodes operation.

These self-powered nodes will remove a major barrier to data communication growth. In conventional optical wireless communications, the steady background component of the received optical signal is usually discarded, but can instead be used to directly power to the receiving terminal.

Professor Haas delivered a recent TED Talk on this technology breakthrough. The video of his talk is available here -

http://www.ted.com/talks/harald_haas_a_breakthrough_new_kind_of_wireless_internet

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About Edinburgh Research and Innovation

Edinburgh Research & Innovation (ERI) is a UK leader in commercialising research and entrepreneurship. As the University of Edinburghs commercialisation (technology transfer) office, ERI seek to promote the Universitys world-class research and commercialisation expertise to potential funders, collaborators, licensees or investors.
A recent economic impact report revealed that this activity contributes over £164 million annually to the UK economy and supporting nearly 3,000 jobs.
Website: www.research-innovation.ed.ac.uk
Twitter: @EdinLicensing
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/edinburgh-research-and-innovation

University of Edinburgh Li-Fi R&D Centre

The Li-Fi Research and Development Centre is dedicated to accelerating the development of Li-Fi as a major global industry, through creating a pipeline for innovative ideas, technologies, products and partnerships. By facilitating collaboration between industry, internationally renowned experts from the University of Edinburgh, and other key research institutes around the world, the Centre is taking emerging Li-Fi technologies through into mainstream applications that will soon begin to impact on many aspects of the modern world. The Centre, with its partners and collaborators, will foster the wide spread market adoption of Li-Fi technologies.
Website: www.lifi-centre.com
Twitter: @LiFi_Centre

pureLiFi

pureLiFi Ltd spun out from the University of Edinburgh in 2012 with the help of ERI. pureLiFi is recognised as the leader in Li‐Fi technology. Its pioneering research into visible light communication has been in development since 2008 as part of the renowned D‐Light project. Its team includes highly qualified, international visible light communication engineers and management experience in the mobile and communications sector exceeding 50 years.
Combined with its continued links with the University of Edinburgh and access to Professor Haas continued ground breaking research, pureLiFi is well placed to maintain its leadership position in developing and delivering Li‐Fi solutions. They have developed three iterations of their Li-Fi product and garnered early success in the security sector. The strength of their innovation has recently been recognised when shortlisted for a Tech Company of the Year award at the Scottish Business Awards - to be announced in November 2015.
Website: http://purelifi.com
Twitter: @purelifi

Li-Fi

The term Li-Fi was coined by Professor Harald Haas, and refers to visible light communications (VLC) technology that delivers a high-speed, bidirectional networked, mobile communications in a similar manner as Wi-Fi. Although Li-Fi can be used to off-load data from existing Wi-Fi networks, implementations may be used to provide capacity for the greater downlink demand such that existing wireless or wired network infrastructure may be used in a complementary fashion.


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For further information, please contact Kevin Dorrian at Acumen on 0131 661 7027 or email - kevin.dorrian@acumen-pr.com twitter - @acumenpr

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